‘The Vampire Diaries’: Season 5, Episode 12 ‘The Devil Inside’

Well the cat’s outta the bag pretty early in this week’s episode of “Vampire Diaries” when Katherine immediately admits to Matt she’s traveling in Elena’s body. And right before we all get confused, she compels him to forget it all.

In other news, Caroline and Tyler are desperately trying to get over each other. So naturally Caroline cleans while Tyler doesn’t shower. Yeah, it’s as if we can almost smell him through the TV…gross. Methinks someone’s feeling a little bit guilty for kissing Klaus…

Anyways, Stefan is still on this weird ‘let’s get Elena and Damon back together’ trip and no one (including Damon and Elena) understands. What’s even more bizarre is the fact that Caroline is actually on board to help the cause – again with this guilty conscience thing…

Back to the doppelganger/traveler situation: Katherine’s locked herself (in Elena’s body) to a bed post just in case Elena is able to pull through, which, of course, she does. Disoriented and locked up, at first Elena doesn’t understand, but eventually everything comes back to her. Right before Elena is able to escape, Nadia makes it back to the hotel room and compels Katherine back. Got it? Yeah, me neither…

So now all of Elena’s friends are starting to get worried since none of them know Katherine has taken her body over. At first, Katherine thinks she will be capable of fooling her friends, but Nadia quickly smashes that thought, but they both do acknowledge they’ll have to act fast. Everyone knows Elena’s friends will stop at nothing once they actually find out she’s “missing” and Nadia’s no closer to finding her mother’s actual body.

And just to keep things interesting Damon’s Augustine bud, Enzo has re-entered the picture and it seems like the two have finally forgiven each other. In fact, to show his remorse for their earlier fight, Enzo brings him a body to feed on. So how’s that for vampire peace offerings?

Here’s the catch – Damon is supposed to kill him in order to show his renewed trust in their rekindled friendship. The problem? It’s Elena’s friend from Whitmore who’s a more recent generation of the Augustine family…so yeah, Damon twists Enzo’s neck instead.

The next scene was truly painful to watch. Caroline, in all her guilty glory, decides she needs to vent to her best friend Elena about her decision to hook up with Klaus. Unfortunately for Caroline that means she just spilled the beans to her arch nemesis Katherine. Yikes…didn’t see that one coming. But what’s more? Now Tyler knows. Double yikes.

And now for the real meat of the episode – Nadia has tracked down both Katherine’s body and a witch to complete the transition. One commercial break later and we’re taken into the witch’s candlelit sacrifice room where they’ll end Elena’s life for good so Katherine can live on.

Right before the spell is complete, Elena (of course) rises to the surface yet again. This time, her brief stint back in reality is a bit more productive. She effectively knocks Nadia out and breaks the witch’s concentration and spell…but not for long enough. Although Elena is able to escape, Nadia and the witch trudge one and before know it, the witch speaks – it’s done.

And with that, Elena is blocked out and Katherine is back. And of course, the transition happens right as Damon finds “Elena” in the woods and decides to give the best ‘let’s get back together’ speech of all Vampire Diaries time.

“You’re the good and I need a little good in my life,” Damon admits. “Because without it, there’s an awful lot of darkness.”

But in perfect Katherine fashion, she refuses to let Damon back into “Elena’s” life. “We’re over,” she mutters. And with that, the vixen smiles as she walks way.

Here are some other thoughts I had from this week:

I thought everyone would hate Caroline a lot more once they all found out she slept with Klaus

I think I agree with Tyler’s decision to leave town for a little bit to clear his head

I definitely am excited to see how long Katherine can keep up this rouse in Elena’s body

So what’s the deal? Is Elena really not ever coming back – surely that cannot be true?